SHILLONG: At a time when the Meghalaya police are pressing hard to maintain law and order with a people-friendly attitude, allegations of highhandedness have been made against a constable of the Umsning (Nayabunglow) police station. The passengers of a tourist taxi accused the constable of rude behaviour.

"My mother and I were on our way to Guwahati from Shillong in a tourist taxi with registration number AS-01AC-4475 on Wednesday. Our vehicle hit an auto-rickshaw (ML-10A-4441), which overturned and blocked the road. But, a private vehicle(ML-05H-5689) that was right behind our taxi insisted on moving ahead despite the accident, forcing the traffic police to take all three vehicles to the police station to sort out the matter," said Saurav Biswas, one of the passengers and an engineering student.

He added, "On reaching the police station, we asked the police to let us go as we were mere passengers and had nothing to do with the accident. But, the constable present threatened to lock me up if I spoke another word and even behaved rudely with my mother when she asked him why he was picking on us."

However, the matter was sorted out soon and the police let the vehicles go after keeping their registration. Meanwhile, Ri Bhoi district superintendent of police, C Lyngwa admitted that such lapses do occur from time to time when "the lower rung personnel develop the tendency to get overboard". She apologized for the incident and assured that necessary punitive action would be initiated against the erring police personnel soon.

"We need to be firm while upholding the law, but we also need to be courteous and that is what I have been trying to imbibe in my people," the police officer, who has received several awards including the president's medal, said.